The rapid expansion of information service and data processing industries has resulted in a need for computer systems to manage and store large amounts of data. As an example, financial service companies such as banks, mutual fund companies or the like often operate complex data processing systems that require access to many hundreds of gigabytes or even terabytes of data and files stored within high capacity data storage systems. Data storage system developers have responded to these types of data storage requirements by integrating large capacity data storage systems, data communications devices and computer systems into networks called “storage networks” or “storage area networks” (SANs.) A storage area network is a collection of data storage systems that are networked with a number of host computer systems that operate as servers to access data stored in the data storage systems on behalf of client computers that request data from the servers.
A developer or administrator of such a storage area network environment may operate a storage area network management software application on a host computer system within the storage area network to manage or administer the various components (i.e., host computer systems, data storage systems, software processes, etc.) that operate within the storage area network. A network manager or administrator (i.e., a person) responsible for management of the storage area network operates the network management software application to perform management tasks such as performance monitoring, network analysis and remote configuration and administration of the various components operating within the storage area network.
A typical conventional storage area network management software application may have several different software components that execute independently of each other on different computer systems or devices within the storage area network, but that collectively interoperate together or in relation to one another to perform network management operations. As an example, conventional designs of storage area network management applications can include a console component that provide a graphical user interface for use by the administrator, a server component, several agent components, storage components and possibly other software components as well.
Generally, the server component operates as a central management control process within the storage area network management application and coordinates communication between the console, storage and agent components. The console component often executes within a dedicated storage area network management workstation to allow the network administrator to visualize and remotely control and manage the various elements within the storage area network that are graphically represented within the console. Agent components execute on various host computer systems such as servers within the storage area network to manage and control storage area network entities (i.e., managed entities, resources or elements). As an example, there may be different respective agents specifically designed (e.g., coded) to remotely manage and control certain vendor-specific data storage systems, database applications, switches, and so forth.
More specifically, conventional agent components receive remote management commands from the server or console components and apply functionality associated with those management commands to the managed entities within the storage area network for which those agents are designated to manage. Agents are also responsible for periodically collecting configuration or management data concerning the storage area network elements that those agents managed. As an example, a conventional host or data storage system agent designed to managed file systems within a host computer system in the storage area network might operate on a host to collect file system information concerning files, directories or other data elements stored within file systems accessible to that host computer system. The agent can collect and report the list of files and associated file information (e.g. size of each file, creation date, owner, permissions, etc.) to a storage or server component that processes this information for presentation to the network manager (e.g., via the console component). Continuing with the file system example from above, the conventional storage component receives the collected file system data containing the list of files and associated file data from the agent. Upon receipt, the store or server components processes this information to calculate statistics on file system utilization within the host computer system from which that agent collected the data.
Example computations that the conventional store or server process can perform based on collected file system data include calculations to determine total used and free space capacity within the file system, percentages of total storage accessed by a host, and so forth. The storage area network manager or administrator can interact with the console component of the storage area network management application to obtain and view the calculated file system information in order to monitor performance of the file systems accessible to host computer systems in the storage area network and make determinations on the best use of available storage capacity.